Chris Bosh empathizes with Dolphins' Martin

NEW YORK — Chris Bosh appreciates what it's like to be different, to opt for pregame reading instead of rap, to be viewed as cultured instead of coarse.

So, yes, he took note of the hazing that reportedly led to Stanford-educated Miami Dolphins right tackle Jonathan Martin leaving the team earlier this week.

"You know what? It's difficult to fit into society sometimes, in that situation, especially in sports," Bosh said following Friday morning's shootaround, as the Miami Heat prepared for Friday night's game against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center. "Not everybody understands. In this case, people will give you a rough time for that."

Just this past week, Bosh published a first-round piece in Slate about the value of teaching coding to youth, not the type of fare typically generated from a locker room.

"People mess around about it," Bosh said of the preference for intelligence over inanity. "Coming from that background of education, you had to be able to take a joke or you wouldn't be able to survive."

Bosh said while teammates have ribbed him for his erudite pursuits, they've never made him uncomfortable.

"I mean, you always feel for guys," he said. "You don't want anybody to go through difficult situations, especially with their own team, at the hands of their own teammates. Hopefully, they'll get that all straightened out and he'll be able to do what he loves."

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said he was not familiar with the Martin-Dolphins dynamic, but spoke of accepting a diversity of personalities in the locker room.

"For us," Spoelstra said, "we know in our locker room we have some strong, dynamic, unique personalities. And probably to fit into our locker room, you have to be different, fit in in your own way. You have to be confident.

"But we embrace whoever it is, and whatever their individual characteristics are, and we understand that they're different."

Spoelstra said hazing has not been an issue in the Heat locker room.

"No, but you have to have thick skin to be in our locker room," he said. "Guys are allowed to be themselves. I'm not trying to change personalities, but in terms of culture, philosophy, discipline, we're unbending in those areas. But within those parameters, bringing in your own, individual personality helps bring some interest to a long regular season."

Their turn

As the Heat did in 2010, when they brought in Bosh and LeBron James to join Dwyane Wade, the Nets are attempting to find their way by injecting Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce into their mix with Deron Williams, Brook Lopez and Joe Johnson.

"It's different for each team, absolutely different for each team," said Spoelstra, whose team got off to a 9-8 start with Bosh, James and Wade in 2010. "In our case, it took probably about six weeks before the guys started to feel a little bit more comfortable. But even when we went on that run, [winning] 21 out of 22, in December, we still weren't ready for real adversity that happens. Then we went through that, that was another big, growing step for us.

"But it's different. It's impossible to predict."

D-League details

Spoelstra said it is unique having training-camp cuts Justin Hamilton and Larry Drew II working with the Heat's NBA Development League team, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, even with the Heat no longer holding contractual rights to those players.

"That's what's unique about it this year, is the fact that it's our system, our coaches, our philosophy," Spoelstra said, with former Heat scout Pat Delany now coaching the Skyforce. "So they trained with us now for either an entire summer or the last six weeks, and that'll fast-track the whole process.

"Pat has been with us the entire training camp and that'll help speed things up when they go there. It helps them. It helps them look better. It helps them play with more confidence. And it's unique that we can still get to keep guys, in our system, that we liked. We did not enjoy that cutting process. It was tough this year. And obviously they're free to sign with anybody. At least, for the time being, they're with us."

The Heat on Friday traded the D-League rights to camp cut Jarvis Varnado to the Iowa Energy in order to move up in the D-League draft.